Gavin Guidry watches LSU practice Sunday at the University of Nebraska-Omaha field. Guidry, a former Barbe High School pitcher, missed the entire season and is recovering from surgery in April for a herniated disk. Guidry is quietly contributing in the dugout as he tries to stay in the shadows of the Tigers’ run for an eighth College World Series championship in Omaha, Neb. Guidry pitched in the 2023 CWS. (Scooter Hobbs / American Press)

OMAHA, Neb. — When LSU got in its first College World Series practice at Charles Schwab Field on Thursday, Gavin Guidry resisted the urge to gaze out at the mound.

No reminiscing. No warm and fuzzy thoughts. Never mind that the mound in the middle of college baseball’s mecca was the scene of probably the career athletic highlight for a player who has many to choose from.

It’s where the former Barbe High star and Gatorade Louisiana Player of the Year, then a freshman, was pitching two years ago when LSU won its seventh CWS championship. It’s the same spot where he struck out the final Florida Gator before a wave of yellow jerseys engulfed him and he disappeared under the obligatory dogpile.

Nice memory, no?

“Sure,” Guidry said Sunday while his teammates practiced. “It’s really cool but, seriously, I haven’t done a lot (of thinking) about it.”

Guidry is here, hanging with “my guys,” and doing whatever he can for the LSU cause.

“It’s their time now,” he said Sunday, pointing to teammates going through practice drills. “Their time to shine, their time to perform.

“They worked really hard for this and I’ve tried to stay out of the way as much as possible and make it about anything but me.”

Guidry is in the dugout for games, usually right next to head coach Jay Johnson, and will do whatever is asked of him, always there — “They know where I am” — if some Tiger needs something.

But he can’t play.

Guidry has missed the entire season with a curious injury that took a while to diagnose, with a root cause that remains a mystery.

He had surgery for a herniated disk in mid-April and is ready to start rehabbing for next year whenever doctors give him the green light.

There was preseason talk he might move from the bullpen to the starting rotation. In fact, he was due to start the second of two midweek games the first week of the season.

“I felt like my body was in a great place leading into the season,” Guidry said.

But the scheduled Wednesday game was rained out and …

“I woke up Thursday morning stiff as a brick, couldn’t move. It was really weird,” he said.

For a few weeks, there was hope before, finally, season-ending surgery.

“We aren’t really sure if it was kind of a wear-and-tear injury or if I did something and didn’t realize I did something,” Guidry said. “But, yeah, it kind of just came out of nowhere.”

Guidry chose LSU not sure if he’d pitch or play shortstop — he hit .422 his senior year at Barbe while also going 8-0 on the mound with an 0.16 ERA, almost two strikeouts an inning (83 in 45).

The mound prevailed and that freshman year he was 3-0 with three saves while striking out 42 in 28 innings.

Last year was more of the same — 2-0, 2.59 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 24 innings.

Now, back in Omaha, all he can do is watch.

“I know my role,” he said. “I can’t affect the game on the field. Nothing I can do to actively help us win games, just sit in the dugout, watch things, anything I can pick up that the other team is doing.”

Johnson said Guidry underestimates his role and has valued his presence near his side at the end of the dugout.

When he sees something of interest, Guidry isn’t shy about bringing it up to Johnson and other coaches, players too.

“He’s been super open to anything I’ve said …and I don’t hold anything back, even if something I think they already see or know,” Guidry said. “I just throw it out there in case they miss something.”

But it’s not the same.

“You work day in and day out to be on the field,” Guidry said. “The last 21 years of my life to be out there competing. It gets taken away, it’s kind of hard to deal with, sometimes hard to understand why it happened, what went wrong.”

But this is no pity party.

“At the end of the day, just being in the dugout, I’m still experiencing something most kids dream of experiencing,” he said. “I have to remember I’ve got it pretty good.”

There’s one thing he won’t experience, no matter how long LSU’s run lasts.

Should this season end with another dogpile, don’t look for Guidry in the middle of it.

“I’ll be out celebrating,” he said. “But I mean to stay away from any dogpile for now. Don’t want to risk aggravating injury.

“We can do it again next year.”